After three seasons of being the doormat of the Pacific-10 Conference, the Oregon men’s tennis team dusted itself off and showed a glimpse of the team it could become.
This season, the Ducks shook their four-year Pacific-10 Conference losing streak, upset a top 20 opponent and made their first appearance in the NCAA team tournament since 2000.
“It was definitely our coming out party this year,” ninth-year head coach Chris Russell said. “We made progress with the Pac-10 and that is a big step.”
Russell said their strength of schedule helped the team out immensely. Before the conference season started, Oregon played No. 14 Rice, No. 28 Georgia Tech, No. 37 Minnesota and a nonconference match against rival Washington, which was then ranked 18th in the nation.
“We haven’t had a schedule like this before, and the competition early in the season helped,” Russell said.
In the match against Washington, the Ducks fought hard and pulled off the upset 4-3. It marked only the fifth victory for the Ducks over the Huskies in 112 tries.
“The Washington victory was a monumental victory and really put the wheels in motion for the season,” Russell said.
Oregon went into Pac-10 play 8-4, but dropped its first three matches. The slow start didn’t deter the hopes of the Ducks as they went into a home match against No. 34 Arizona State. The Sun Devils were the last team Oregon beat in Pac-10 play back in 2000.
Oregon fell behind 2-0 but came back and won four of the next five matches to upset the Sun Devils and end their losing streak in the Pac-10.
Oregon finished the season with losses against No. 3 UCLA, No. 4 USC and No. 23 Washington. The Ducks were on the bubble of making the tournament with a record of 9-10 and their postseason fate depended on the tournament committee.
The team continued to practice, and it paid off as it was announced it would travel to Mississippi to face Vanderbilt.
The Ducks bowed out to the Commodores, 4-0, but Russell believes the experience was priceless.
“We had exposure to a lot of good tennis, and we can use that experience for next year,” Russell said. “This season was very successful for us, but we still have things we want to accomplish.”

Swinnen has record-breaking season
As the season went along, it became evident where Oregon’s strength was: at the top of the lineup with Sven Swinnen.
The junior from Switzerland recorded a 21-8 record this season, moving him up to third all-time at Oregon in career singles victories with 60.
Swinnen’s rise to a first-team All-Pac-10 player is even more amazing considering he started the season unranked. His first big victory of the season came over No. 25 Alex Slovic of Washington in late February.
That victory was the beginning of a six-week period in which he lost only one of his next eleven matches.
During that span Swinnen defeated No. 7 Tobias Clemens of UCLA and No. 19 Adriano Biasella of USC in consecutive matches. The victories vaulted Swinnen’s ranking up to 16th in the nation, the highest of any player in the program’s history.
He earned a bid to the NCAA individual tournament but was upset in the first round by William Barker of Rice.

Higher expectations for next year
With all the success that came this year, hopes are even higher next season as the Ducks return players at their top five positions.
Along with Swinnen, Russell’s squad returns two-time NCAA individual tournament qualifier Manuel Kost and 6-foot-6 Thomas Bieri. Germany’s Markus Schiller and Eugene native Arron Spencer also return to next year’s lineup.
Freshmen Eric Pickard and Vladimir Pino — along with two recruits Russell whom says he can’t mention until they are officially signed — will fight for the No. 6 position.
“I think we’re going to be a force to be reckoned with next year,” Russell said. “We are a very cohesive unit and tasted a bit of the championship level, so our hunger will be that much greater.”